Don't Blame Me, Don't Hate Me
by sunsetsoverbaltimore
Summary: Jordin has big dreams for herself. She plans on going off to college in the fall to pursue her dreams in Journalism, but all that, and possibly more, gets put on the line when she discovers that she is pregnant with her boyfriend, Zack Merrick's, baby. She's torn between going to college and raising her baby, but first...she has to tell Zack that she's pregnant.
1. Chapter 1

The bright pink plus sign glared back at her, clear evidence of the mistake that she had made. She curled up with her back against the wall, wrapping her arms around her knees and bringing them to her chest. She felt as if there was a weight on her chest, making it harder and harder for her to breathe. What was she going to do? She had plans to go off to college in the fall, to major in Journalism and Marketing, or maybe Entertainment Management, but Journalism for sure. She sniffled quietly, hot tears beginning to stream down her face. How was she supposed to tell Zack? He was on tour almost all year, and there was no way that she would be able to be a single mother, she would have to give up on all of her dreams of ever going to college and making it out of that small town.

"Jordin? Are you okay?" He asked, knocking softly on the door. She bit down on her lip, wiping her eyes. If she sniffled, he would hear her. He could hear almost anything.

"Uh, yeah…just a sec." She stood up, putting her hair up into a messy bun. She frowned, looking in the mirror, then back down at the pregnancy stick in her hand. She couldn't just throw it away, he would obviously see it. She grabbed the box of tampons from under the sink and shoved it in the bottom, there was no way he would find it in there.

"Are you sure you're okay? You sound worried or something…" Oh, Zack, the romantic at heart always able to tell when his girlfriend wasn't acting like herself or able to tell when something was on her mind.

Jordin opened the door and looked up at him. She hadn't bawled her eyes out, so they weren't red and puffy, which was nice. She wouldn't have known how to explain that to him. But obviously, there were bigger problems. The two of them were going to be parents in 9 short months and neither of them were ready.

"Yeah, babe. I'm fine." She said as she instantly wrapped her arms around his torso. She rested her head on his chest and bit down on her lip when he pressed his lips to her forehead. She couldn't help but start to wonder if he would stay with her whenever she decided to tell him she was pregnant.

"Are you hungry? I have a couple of hours of free time before sound-check so I wanted to come see if you wanted to grab lunch."

"Yeah, sounds great. Let me just grab my phone." She looked up at him, giving him a reassuring smile that everything was okay. She reached up on her tippy toes, pressing her lips to his. "You know I love you, right?"

"I love you too, Jordin. Always."

 _"I hope you'll still love me when you find out I'm pregnant…"_ She thought to herself. She grabbed her phone and walked off the bus with him.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days had passed and Jordin still hadn't told Zack yet. Every time she watched him onstage doing what he loved, he just looked so happy, and she knew that she would ruin that happiness with the news that he was soon going to be responsible for another human life besides his own. She sighed, running a hand through her hair and leaning back on the couch. It was pretty early in the morning, so everyone on the bus was still asleep, but Jordin's mind was running at a thousand miles a minute, there was no way she would be able to settle down enough to sleep.

"Everything alright?" Matt, the tour manager, asked, snapping her out of her deep though.

"Uh, yeah, just thinking…thinking about classes and student loans and stuff." That was a total lie, her parents had built up a trust fund, so she had the money for college, but she couldn't exactly tell Matt she was pregnant until she told Zack.

"Ah, I see, well…good luck with all of that." He said, taking a sip of his coffee before going back to typing on his Macbook, probably making a schedule for the day. There was no show that day, but the guys had some radio interviews to do around town, which meant Zack and Jordin would be able to have the night alone.

 _"The perfect opportunity to tell him. We just need to be alone…"_ She thought to herself, sighing quietly. She bit down on her lip again, looking down at her phone in her lap. She couldn't help but think about what Zack would say. Would he be angry? Upset? Excited? Maybe all of the above, and she understood completely.

The interviews and the meet and greet were over around 6:30, which meant that everyone else had the rest of the night off. Alex and Jack were going out with Evan and Vinny, probably to find a bar to get drunk at, and Rian was meeting up with his girlfriend, Cassadee, so it was just Zack and Jordin, alone, on the bus.

Jordin was curled up under a blanket on the couch in the lounge, barely paying attention to the show that was on the television. She was waiting for Zack to get out of the shower, so she could ruin his life with the news of her pregnancy, or at least it seemed that way. She wasn't excited that she was pregnant, at least not at that moment. She didn't know exactly how she felt, but it was a mix between disappointment and anger. Disappointment because she had her dreams of going to Journalism school, and anger that they weren't careful enough.

"Hey, babe." Zack said as he climbed over her, laying behind her on the couch and wrapping an arm around her, kissing her cheek. "You alright?" He asked. He worried about her a lot, which was nice, but sometimes it wasn't so nice.

"No…" she bit her lip, looking up at him. "There's something I need to tell you, but first, I need to know that you won't leave me." She bit down on her lip, her eyes filling up with tears.

Zack leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before pressing his lips against hers. He wiped her eyes gently with his thumb before biting his lip. "What is it, babe? I promise, I won't leave you. Whatever it is, you don't have to go through it alone...I'm going to be here for you."

"Zack…" She whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "I-I…I'm pregnant." She said as she started to cry, sobbing into his chest as she felt the all too familiar strong arms wrap around her body, holding her, protecting her.

"Y-you're pregnant?" He asked, holding her as she cried. He bit down on his lip, rubbing his hand up and down her back. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to feel. He and Jordin had talked about having a child or two later down the road after she had finished Journalism school and his career slowed down, but he never expected it to be this soon. He never expected to be a father this soon.

"Y-yes…" She sniffled. "I haven't been feeling good for a few weeks and so I went online, and the symptoms said that I may be pregnant…so when the busses stopped at that gas station a few days ago, I snuck off the bus when you were asleep and went and got a pregnancy test, and sure enough, it was positive." She started to cry into his chest again.

Zack bit down on his lip again, and at this rate he was sure that he was going to chew it off, but he just didn't know what else to do. "Baby, baby….it's alright." He muttered. Clearly, things weren't alright, but he didn't want Jordin upset. He hated seeing her cry. "You obviously didn't do this on your own, so I'm obviously not gonna let you do it alone. Even if you somehow did do it on your own, I still wouldn't let you do it by yourself. Yeah, we're not ready to be parents yet, but I'm sure once we get to see him, or her, we will be. We'll make it work, I'll still be able to have my career and you'll still be able to go to Journalism school, even if it means doing it online for a while until I stop touring so much so I can watch the baby, we'll do it. I promise, Jordin, we'll make it work." He said as he kissed her forehead, looking down at her "I love you, Jordin. I love you."

Jordin bit down on her lip and looked up at him, reaching up and pressing her lips to his. That was one of the things that she loved about Zack, he was always so positive about the outcome, no matter what the situation may be. "I love you, too, Zack." She sniffled, wiping her eyes with the blanket. "We won't have much time to figure things out, you know…"

"I know, but in the mean-time, we can shop online for a crib and all that baby stuff since tour is ending in another week. We can also move your stuff into my place, or your apartment, whatever you want, babe." He reached down and pressed his lips to hers.

 _"I'm glad that's over…I don't think I would be able to do this by myself…"_ She thought to herself as she reached up, kissing him softly. "Okay…" she whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been two weeks since tour ended, and everyone was trying to get back into the swing of things. Usually, it was pretty easy to catch up on sleep since there were no interruptions for soundchecks or meet and greets, but things were different for Zack and Jordin. They spent most of their nights into the morning, laying in their bed and talking about the baby. They talked about everything, ranging from what colors they were going to paint the nursery, girl names, boy names, even the topic of marriage came up. Jordin had always wanted to be married before she had her first child, but sometimes, things didn't always go as planned.

Jordin rolled over, rubbing her eyes. She groaned quietly and grabbed her phone, hitting the home button and displaying the time. It read 9:46. Had she really slept that late? She sat up, sitting there for a few minutes before the sudden onset of nausea had hit her. She ran to the bathroom, falling to her knees and vomiting into the toilet.

Zack was in the living room, watching some boring rerun of a show, but he had heard Jordin vomiting and ran into the bathroom. He squatted down next to her, holding her hair back and rubbing her back.

"Shh, it's alright…" He whispered as he gently leaned her back against the wall, standing up to grab a cool wash cloth and wiping her mouth and face. He sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her. "Are you alright?"

Jordin held the rag in her hands, resting her head on his shoulder. "Yeah…I'm fine. Just morning sickness." She said as she looked up at him. "Which I read that could possibly last all day, just not the morning." She groaned, burying her head into his shoulder.

Zack frowned, looking down at her. "I don't know how I can help you if it's something that happens naturally, which sucks because I don't like seeing you sick." He said as he pushed a piece of her hair back behind her ear.

"It's okay, I'll be okay…" She said as she looked up at him. "I'll just drink some sprite, or maybe some water, and eat some crackers, although I'm not really in the mood to eat anything."

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Zack stood up, picking up Jordin with so much ease and carrying her downstairs. He sat her down on the couch, leaving to grab her a can of sprite, a bottle of water and a roll of crackers.

"Are you going to be able to lift me 9 months from now when I have a round belly and I'm 30 pounds heavier?" She smirked, asking him as she took the items.

He chuckled, sitting down next to her as she put her legs in his lap. He grabbed the blankets from behind the couch, spreading them out over the two of them. "I can carry the 3 of our heavy suitcases by myself with ease, you won't be a problem…and besides, you'll lose most of, if not all of the weight after you have the baby anyway. But it's not like it matters, I'm Mr. Macho Man anyway." He chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…nobody likes lifting weights for fun, you know." She smirked, opening the can of Sprite and taking a small sip.

"This guy does." He smirked.

"I have my first ultrasound appointment in two weeks. We get to find out exactly how far along I am…then depending on that, we'll get to find out the gender hopefully not too long after that."

Zack wrapped an arm around her, pressing a small kiss to her forehead. "I hope it's a boy…I can teach him to skate board, play sports, video games…he'll be just like me." He chuckled, looking down at her.

"I really want a little girl, I want to dress her up in cute outfits. She'll be a mini me." She smiled, imagining the thought of having a little girl.

"One of you is enough." Zack smirked, teasing her.

"One of you is enough!" Jordin giggled slightly, leaning up to kiss him.

"I love you, a lot." He smiled.

"And I love you, muscles." She smirked.

 **A/N: Sorry this chapter is kinda boring and dry, I've been really busy with homework and work, but I'll try to crank out a better chapter 4! :D**


End file.
